Baker Boy and His Girl on Fire
by idealskeptic
Summary: Set in "Hunger Games," this is a view of the 74th Hunger Games and, more specifically, the "star-crossed lovers" from District 12 as seen by the mentors. Finnick Odair sees a whole new side of Haymitch Abernathy as he guides Katniss and Peeta through the arna.


**Disclaimer: **All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

**A/N: **This is my very first _Hunger Games_ fanfic. I hope I did good! _Hunger Games_ is very quickly and surely stealing me away from _Twilight_ and I don't mind a bit. Anyway, this is set in _The Hunger Games_ so no spoilers from anything other than that book and it's from Finnick Odair's point of view.

I hope you like it!

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**Baker Boy and His Girl on Fire**

For lack of anything better to do, I hung around the Mentor's Chamber at the Training Center even after my tribute, Moby, took a sword in the back from District 2's Hungry Brute at the Cornucopia. His District 2 partner, Spice Girl, took out Johanna Mason's tribute just before Moby ceased to exist, so Johanna and I amused ourselves playing poker at my desk as night settled on Day 3 in the arena.

"This would be more fun if it was strip poker," Johanna grumped as she dealt the cards. "Or maybe if you were paying attention, Odair. What's so damn interesting?"

I gestured toward the pair of desks assigned to the District 12 mentors, occupied for the last twenty-four years only by Haymitch Abernathy. "Notice anything different?" I whispered conspiratorially.

"Hey, the 12 kids didn't get killed yet," she said absently, only glancing over before she returned her attention to the cards. "I wish I'd had their stylists in my Games. Did you see those flaming unitards?"

"Yeah, they were great, but that's not what I meant, Mason." I leaned forward and grabbed her hand. "Look at Haymitch. Closely."

It took her a minute, but she finally realized what I meant. "He's not drunk," she whispered in disbelief. "He's not even drinking. What the hell?"

She was out of her chair before she finished speaking and I followed her to stand behind Haymitch. He didn't notice we were there, so I spoke up. "What's happening, Haymitch?"

"She should just drop and let them put her out of her misery," Cashmere growled from her station at the other side of the room. "You should send her something that tells her _that_."

I liked the so-called 'Girl on Fire' and her Baker Boy, so I put my hand on their mentor's shoulder, keeping him from going after the Career mentor. It didn't escape my notice that Johanna grabbed his other shoulder. If they had any shot at surviving, they needed their mentor right where he was, not thrown in a cell by the Peacekeepers for attacking another victor.

"Ignore her," Chaff counseled his friend from the next set of desks over.

On the screen, I saw that Haymitch's girl was up a tree and a pack of Careers from 1, 2, and the girl from my District had congregated below the tree, trying to kill her.

"Hey, that's Baker boy in the pack," I said, leaning in for a closer look. "What's his game?"

"Trying to keep the rest of them away from her," Haymitch grunted.

"What? He really does love her?" Johanna asked in doubtfully.

Haymitch glanced away from the screen just long enough to glance up at her. "He plans to die for her," he said in a low, blunt voice. "That's his game – stay alive long enough to keep her alive."

"What if they're the last two?" I asked, never remembering that having happened before but asking anyway.

His answer made us all go quiet. "He'll kill himself. Told me so on the train here."

We watched in silence as Hungry Brute failed in his attempt to climb the tree, landing on his back with a resounding thud – something that made me smile. The Careers made a few other failed attempts to get her down while Baker Boy worked his magic with words and convinced them to wait her out. What he'd do when morning came and they still wanted to kill her, I didn't know.

"Shit, is that a tracker jacker nest?" Johanna murmured, leaning forward and pointing at a spot just above Girl on Fire's head.

"A live one," Chaff confirmed, paying more attention to the Careers and the tree than to his own tribute. "Rue's there, though, in that other tree. Drinks on me after the Games if she doesn't point it out to your girl, Haymitch."

They shook hands but we were all still focused on the screens around us.

I was exhausted after a long morning and afternoon schmoozing the rich, oversexed women of The Capitol, and I decided to call it a night after the anthem played. I'd just turned away from the screen when I heard the faint sounds of a sawing against the music.

The Girl on Fire, who'd taunted the Career Pack as they tried to kill her, not to mention how she must have felt seeing Baker Boy with them, had started sawing through the branch the tracker jacker nest hung from. I knew what she was doing and I silently cheered for her. She was going to get stung, no doubt about that, and she knew it.

When Haymitch sent her the burn medicine after the anthem ending, stopping her sawing, I turned to leave and saw Mags huddled over the District 4 station.

Knowing that she was still there because our girl, Gail, was alive and part of the Pack, I leaned down and kissed her cheek. "Go sleep," I told her. "I'll watch her tonight."

She stood up and pulled me down so she could kiss my cheek in thanks. "Don't give her anything unless not giving her something will get us in trouble back home," she counseled me softly. "I like Haymitch's team."

I tapped my temple and smiled. "Great minds think alike, my dear lady."

"Your charms don't work on me anymore, boy," she laughed, gathering up her jacket and cane.

"Only because you fell hopelessly in love with me the moment Calpurnia called my name nine years ago," I argued, winking at her.

She winked back, deliberately jabbing her cane into my foot as she left. "Call me if anything exciting happens," she called over her shoulder.

Something exciting happened at dawn, and I would have missed it if Johanna hadn't punched me in the shoulder, waking me from a very strange dream about my many forced lovers turning into tracker jackers during sex.

"I tried calling your name," Mags told me with a shrug and a smirk. "Johanna's way was quicker. Gail's still alive, but Katniss is sawing again."

"Katniss?" I repeated blearily. I made it a point not to learn the names of any tributes other than my own until someone won, on the off chance I might start to like one of them. "Who's Katniss?"

"Haymitch's girl," Mags informed me patiently, aware of my nicknames only rule since she was the one who suggested it to me. "She's sawing again but this time under cover of Cato's snoring."

I shook my head. "Cato?"

"The brute from 2. Go watch with Haymitch and Johanna, I'll keep looking busy for our girl. Not that you looked particularly busy," she added, winking slyly at me.

Never one to question Mags, I did as I was told.

I would have punched Johanna back but there wasn't time before the tracker jacket nest went crashing directly into the center of the sleeping Careers. I swallowed the urge to cheer until Gail emerged virtually unscathed as the group broke up and ran. As Katniss fled in the other direction, it looked like the only fatality would be the girl from 2.

When the Girl of Fire returned to pry the bow and arrows from the dead girl, I could hardly believe my eyes.

"She's got balls," Johanna said, a surprising amount of respect in her voice.

"She stung," I said, noting the quickly swelling welts on her hand and cheek. "Balls or not, she's got a rough time ahead of her."

"Rue's close by," Seeder informed us, never taking her eyes off her screen. "She'll help her if she can. She knows the remedy."

"If there's time," Chaff said as we all watched Cato and company return, intent on the kill in spite of their stings.

Haymitch held up his hand. "Give the boy a minute."

Once again, I was shocked.

Baker Boy went back for her. He screamed at her to run, trying to break her out of her tracker jacker induced haze. Mercifully, she listened, stumbling away from him. For his trouble, he took a spear in the thigh courtesy of Cato.

"He really would die for her," Johanna murmured, the idea seeming completely foreign to her. "He _is_ going to die for her."

Haymitch didn't answer her. Looking at him, I knew that these two tributes – Baker Boy and his Girl of Fire – had affected him more than any other tribute since I'd known him, maybe in his entire career as a Mentor. We all mourn when our tributes die, children dying for no damn reason was the best reason in the world to mourn, but the when the boy died, and he would, there was no doubt in my mind that Haymitch would do more than mourn – he'd grieve.

"What's his name?" I asked, breaking the silence of the room.

"Thought you didn't like to know names," he said in a weary voice.

I shrugged. "Some names deserve to be known."

Haymitch pushed back his chair and stood up, looking past me when he answered. "Peeta. His name is Peeta."

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_Well? Did you like it? If you did, please review! I'd love to know what you think!_


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